Business can help increase online traffic, donations

Regional and health reporter

When Andrew Brasher built a website for his church years ago, he didn’t know that his passion for good design and hard work would pay off with a website design business.

Brasher owns INKMD.COM, a business that he’s built up through his contacts with nonprofits, community leaders and plenty of late nights.

“I could work on design ‘til 3 in the morning and be entirely happy,” Brasher said.

Besides designing websites, Brasher also is a student at the University of Georgia and volunteers as a worship leader at his church. He and his wife, Alicia, recently became new parents with the birth of their son, Noah.

“It’s hard to get upset when you enjoy everything you do,” Brasher said.

When deciding to go back to college for web design, Brasher knew that he didn’t want to take a job in food service, he said.

“The economy was pretty much in the garbage three years ago,” he said.

After building his church’s website, other people approached his pastor to recruit Brasher’s design skills to remake their own.

“I did a lot of not-for-profit (organizations) originally,” he said.

Brasher helped design the local United Way website and revamped the Oconee County-based Extra Special People website.

While working with Extra Special People, Brasher saw his design really have an effect, he said.

“They actually got to massively increase their traffic due to the website,” he said. The group started seeing a big increase in online donations.

Besides creating attractive and easy-to-navigate sites for his customers, Brasher also plans to help students — like himself — have the chance to create websites and earn money, not to mention work experience.

Building websites is a way for Internet-savvy college students to make bucks without working at call centers and restaurants, jobs that often don’t prepare them for their future careers, he said.

“Websites and design are going to continue to grow ... this (program) could enable kids to step into their careers after college,” he said.

Brasher hasn’t hired his first college student yet, but he hopes to do so soon.

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